BUSINESSDESK: China Investment Corp, the $US200 billion sovereign wealth fund, is in talks to invest in Van Diemen's Land Co as the New Plymouth District Council-owned dairy farmer seeks to raise up to $A180 million to ramp up production.

A tie-up with the Chinese fund would come after Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings returned from a trade mission that included pitching agriculture and mining investment opportunities to China Investment Corp.

New Plymouth council-owned Tasman Farms, which was delisted from the Unlisted platform in 2010, wants to raise at least $A100 million in fresh equity for Van Diemen's Land to lift production, chief executive Mike Trousselot told BusinessDesk.

"We want to be one of the long-term players with global demand for food," he says.

The farm operator wants to grow its milk production capability to as much as 15 million to 18 million kilograms of milk solids from 5.76 million kg in the 2012 season.

It is already Australia's biggest dairy farmer and Fonterra's largest supplier on the other side of the Tasman, Mr Trousselot says.

Van Diemen's Land chief executive Michael Guerin says he is confident the expansion plans would raise enough funds with "a number of investors interested in the project".

Foreign ownership of land, particularly involving Chinese buyers, has been a thorny issue on both sides of the Tasman.

Shanghai Pengxin's purchase of the Crafar family farms in New Zealand is set to face a challenge in the Supreme Court, while Australian approval for Shandong Ruyi to buy Queensland cotton farm Cubbie Station attracted heavy criticism from opposition politicians.

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1 Comment & Question

Waht the hell is the New Plymouth District Council doing, investing in dairy farms in Tasmania? Another piece of economic madness from Helen Clark's "general competence" legislation of 2002. The sooner the Key Government puts a stop to this local body nonsense, the better.